The money was to be used to purchase household goods and home appliances, the paper reported. The appliances - a luxury in North Korea - were to be shipped over the border and presented by Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, to his loyal supporters.

US authorities estimate that North Korea started manufacturing fake $100 notes in the 1970s, but began crafting notes that were almost indistinguishable from genuine bills in the late 1980s. Dubbed "supernotes", the US estimated that Pyongyang managed to slip at least $45 million worth of the notes into circulation, primarily through its embassies overseas.

In 1998, Sean Garland, the alleged chief of staff of the Official Irish Republican Party, visited the North Korean embassy in Moscow. He was later arrested in Belfast and questioned in connection with the exchange of millions in counterfeit US currency in Dublin and Birmingham. Mr Garland subsequently fled to the Republic of Ireland, which refused a US application for his extradition.